{"id":558234,"date":"2026-03-23T03:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/558234\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T03:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:07:10","slug":"abc-staff-to-strike-for-first-time-in-20-years-over-pay-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/558234\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC staff to strike for first time in 20 years over pay deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of A\ufeffBC staff will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/strike\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"walk off the job\">walk off the job<\/a> this week for the first time in 20 years after rejecting the national broadcaster&#8217;s latest pay offer.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffStaff were notified today that 60 per cent of employees voted against a draft enterprise agreement, which offered a 10 per cent pay rise over three years and a sign-on $1000 bonus.<\/p>\n<p>The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) confirmed that more than 75 per cent of staff participated in the vote, which took place after months of negotiations between ABC management and unions.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/1c582e6d-2b4a-441e-ba9d-90a301ea3298.jpeg\"   alt=\"The ABC said a compromised staff account led to the breach earlier today.\"\/>Staff were notified today that 60 per cent of employees voted against a draft enterprise agreement. (Christopher Pearce)<\/p>\n<p>The vote has triggered a protected 24-hour strike beginning at 11am on Wednesday.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Over 90 per cent of staff who participated in a ballot have voted in favour of the industrial action, the \ufeffMedia, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) said.<\/p>\n<p>Approved action includes the unlimited stoppage of work, with an exemption for any emergency broadcasts.<\/p>\n<p>MEAA chief executive Erin Madeley said the proposed one\u2011off $1000 payment would not be added to base salaries, would not attract superannuation and would exclude casual staff.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Experienced journalists and media workers are being asked to do more with less \u2013 with fewer opportunities for pay progression, less certainty about their future, and growing workloads,&#8221; Madeley said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This isn&#8217;t just a workforce issue. When skilled, experienced staff are forced out, communities lose trusted local voices, particularly in regional Australia where the ABC is often the only local newsroom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The MEAA has called on ABC management to put forward an offer that &#8220;reflects the value of ABC staff and protects the future of Australia&#8217;s public broadcaster&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The ABC employs about 4500 people.<\/p>\n<p>Around 1000 employees participated in the ballot\ufeff for protected industrial action.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;CPSU members do not vote for strike action lightly. The fact that so many union members have taken this step demonstrates how frustrated they are at this process,&#8221; ABC Section Secretary Jocelyn Gammie said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;ABC staff work hard to provide high quality services for the Australian community. They deserve to be treated with respect and that means a decent pay offer and fair agreement.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The last thing union members want to do is inconvenience loyal ABC audiences by disrupting programming and services, but key bargaining claims remain unresolved,&#8221; Gammie added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unless the ABC put a fair offer on the table, disruptions are inevitable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The last major industrial action to take place at the broadcaster was in 2006, when ABC staff stopped work nationwide for 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Nine.com.au has contacted the ABC for comment.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of A\ufeffBC staff will walk off the job this week for the first time in 20 years&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-558234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}